United States and American History: 1810

About the history of the United States in 1810, the population, the people move west, the Hartford Convention and Federalists meet.

1810

--U.S. population-7,239,881. (The 3rd U.S. census listed: 1,211,364 slaves; 186,746 free Negroes; and 60,000 immigrants.)

--Between 1810 and 1830, 2 million people left the eastern States for the West.

--Tecumseh (spelled variously Tecumtha, Tecumthe, and Tikamthi) was the Indian chief of the Shawnees who, with his brother Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), tried to unite the Indians in the western part of the U.S. against the whites. In 1810 he told the President's messenger:

These lands are ours. No one has a right to remove us, because we were the 1st owners. The Great Spirit above has appointed this place for us, on which to light our fires, and we will remain. As to boundaries, the Great Spirit knows no boundaries, nor will His red children acknowledge any.

(See also: Tecumseh in Footnote People in U.S. History, Chap. 3.)

--There were 366 newspapers in the U.S.

--Greek Revival Architecture had caught on in the U.S. The pillared, templelike buildings were usually painted white, causing James Fenimore Cooper to remark that the homes "looked like 'mushroom temples' lined along the Hudson River marring the landscape with their whiteness."

Apr. 16 Congress voted to reduce the size of both the Army and the Navy.

Summer The French seized, and sold, U.S. merchantmen in the Bay of Naples.

June 23 John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant who eventually became the richest man in America, organized the Pacific Fur Company. Astor's fortune was made in the fur trade and from shrewd real estate investments.

July 12 The trial of journeymen cordwainers began in New York City. They had conspired to raise wages by calling a strike. Union members lost the case and were fined $1 each.

Aug. 30 In Boston, forts were repaired and strengthened and a new one was built.

Dec. 15-Jan. 1815 The Hartford Convention was called by the dissident Federalist group. Delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 2 New Hampshire counties and one Vermont county, met in Hartford, Conn. Their grievances included government placement of regular army officers-illegally-in command of local militia; discrimination against New England commerce; the neglect of the coastline defense (which was left to the States because the Government was concentrating its forces on Canada and the lakes). Other accusations included Federal weakening of the commercial regions by admitting Western States; governmental insistence on following party lines; and pitting States against each other. Though many at the convention called for secession, the moderates prevailed and instead produced these proposals:

1. Nullification of the conscript act

2. Arrangement for part of national taxes from the States to go for defense of those States paying said taxes

3. Provision for sending troops for defense from one New England State to another

4. Amendments to the Constitution:

a. Abolition of the 3/5 rule

b. No new States except by a 2/3 vote in Congress

c. Except in case of invasion, declaration of war to require a 2/3 vote

d. Naturalized persons not to be eligible for civil office, House or Senate

e. No 2nd term for President, nor should a President come from the same State twice in succession.

5. If peace not concluded, or the above & provisions not met, or the defense of

6. the New England States continued to be neglected, a new convention should be called.

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